Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 91 - Run, Rabbit (2)

Chapter 91 – Run, Rabbit (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“That is not something I can decide on my own.”

“I know. But your opinion carries the most weight, Sect Leader.”

I paused briefly, then continued.

“I told you, didn’t I? That I want to change Wudang.”

“I also remember telling you it would not be easy.”

“There is a Mount Tai standing right in front of me that looks very hard to cross.”

Cheong-ui did not relax his hard expression. To conduct trade under the name of the Wudang Sect carried enormous meaning.

“As you know, that is on an entirely different level from something like changing the sect’s internal rules to allow the eating of meat.”

“I know. This is something that changes the very direction of the organization called Wudang.”

If temporarily allowing meat had been a small change, then conducting trade under the Wudang Sect’s name was upheaval. That was the difference in scale.

“Wudang does not pursue profit.”

“But in practical terms, doesn’t it already? The warehouse business I proposed turned a tidy profit right away, and isn’t the reason you occasionally send disciples out on escort jobs the same?”

“The warehouse business at least has the justification of protecting the goods of innocent merchant companies, and escort commissions protect the common people. That is completely different from us directly operating a merchant company. Profit itself would become the goal.”

“Have you not experienced it yourself? That it is hard to run an organization without money.”

“I am not belittling the admirable heart with which you brought food, but we could have endured well enough on our own. Wudang does not collapse so easily.”

“That may have been true up to now.”

“Up to now? Are you saying it will be different from now on?”

I nodded. Now came the real point.

“The Zhuge Clan will likely walk the path of hegemony.”

“Hegemony?”

“There has to be a reason they built their strength up that far.”

“That is not baseless. The Zhuge Clan did try to display its power by defeating us.”

Cheong-ui accepted that much. I had felt it last time too, but Cheong-ui was not actually such a closed-minded man. The last investment proposal had failed, but this one had more than enough chance.

“But I do not see what connection there is between the Zhuge Clan walking the path of hegemony and conducting trade under the Wudang Sect’s name.”

“The Zhuge Clan is not stupid. It will never dash out alone like a jutting, crooked roof beam.”

“No, it would not.”

“Not only the same martial factions, but the political world and the commercial world will move at the same time.”

Cheong-ui flinched. The instant I sensed him waver, I launched my words at him in a rapid burst like the Tang Clan of Sichuan unleashing a rain of hidden weapons.

“The Zhuge Clan will deliberately stir up chaos in the martial world. If they want to reorganize the current martial world centered on the Nine Great Sects into one centered on the Zhuge Clan, they will have no choice but to shake the whole board and flip it over. And in the process of that reorganization of martial authority, the political world and the commercial world will read the atmosphere and rapidly split apart and regroup. The Zhuge Clan has probably already promised benefits to several groups and secured their cooperation.”

“That is only your guess…”

“Shall I say more? To put it simply, the political world and the commercial world do not favor the current martial structure centered on the Nine Great Sects. Because the Nine Great Sects are not profit-seeking groups, it is hard for the political and commercial worlds to wedge themselves in. That is why, rather, they will flock far more readily to the Zhuge Clan, where there is much more to gain.”

Cheong-ui fell silent. As sect leader, he would naturally hear things too. He could not help but know that the political world and the commercial world did not like a martial structure centered on the Nine Great Sects. I had heard it until my ears went numb back when I was in the commercial world as well.

Reasoning grounded in fact is persuasive. Cheong-ui was wavering hard. Here, I decided to ease the tension just a little.

“Very well. The Zhuge Clan may not be plotting any such plan. As you said, Sect Leader, this is only speculation. Not even the Son of Heaven in Beijing knows how the Zhuge Clan will move in the future. I am merely talking about a possibility. The possibility that the Zhuge Clan may throw the martial world into turmoil. If even a small chance of that exists, then you must prepare for it, Sect Leader. If you wait until after the Zhuge Clan moves, it will be too late. Because the Zhuge Clan will already have made extensive preparations before moving. I am saying that we must make preparations to match.”

By the end, my throat had grown so dry that my voice itself trembled. Good. I had not meant it that way, but it made me look sincere.

“A cunning rabbit has three burrows.”

“Exactly. A clever rabbit always digs at least three burrows.”

I grinned.

“But the changes brought by the Zhuge Clan’s hegemonic path will be comparable to an earthquake. If an earthquake strikes, what good are three burrows, or fifty? They would all collapse. If doing nothing is the novice’s move, and digging burrows is the intermediate move, then there is another move for the true master.”

“…And what is that?”

“You run first. While everyone else still does not realize the earthquake is coming, you run for your life. Toward the place where the earthquake will not come. That is not escape. It is advance. And if you keep running and running like that, then someday you will be the first to find an unexplored mountain. At that point, what need would there be for burrows? You could make the entire mountain your home.”

Cheong-ui listened in silence, then let out a long sigh and clicked his tongue.

“I have met many people in my years in the martial world, but I do not think I have ever met anyone who plays with his tongue as cleverly as you. At most, perhaps only the Martial Alliance’s Chief Strategist might compare.”

“I would like to meet him sometime.”

“I do not mind if you meet him, but do it somewhere I am not present. If I had to sit where the two of you were talking, I think it would be exhausting.”

Cheong-yu leaned back and sank into his chair. Just from listening to me, his face had grown haggard, as though he had exchanged a hundred full-strength moves.

“I understand what you are saying.”

“I am grateful that you do.”

I nodded. After I had said this much, there was no way he could fail to understand.

“So, your merchant company means to conduct trade under the Wudang Sect’s name.”

“Yes. Though of course I would not say it is a merchant company directly operated by the Wudang Sect. Because it is not. This is my merchant company.”

“Hm.”

“It is simple. We receive the Wudang Sect’s name and escort support, and the Wudang Sect receives money from us.”

“…And what would the ratio be?”

The moment he said it, Cheong-ui startled himself and clapped a hand over his mouth. I broke into a huge grin.

Just as I had changed, so had Cheong-ui. Words that would never once have come out of his mouth before had now come out.

“Ah, ah. There is no need to feel embarrassed. This is entirely natural and extremely important in a contract. That was an excellent question!”

Looking embarrassed, Cheong-ui covered his face with one hand. To a Daoist, asking about profit margins must have felt that shameful.

Still, anything is hard only the first time. From the second time onward, it gets easy.

“Now, now. Look at this.”

I pulled a sheet of paper from my robe. It was a contract. On it were the contents and clauses of an agreement between the Wudang Sect and the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, down to the exact percentages.

“And if you look at the ratio, it is not bad either. And look at this clause.”

“Where?”

“Right here. It says that the wages of the Wudang disciples who come in as escorts will be provided separately, doesn’t it?”

“…Is that not only natural? Are you trying to take credit for something like that?”

Cheong-ui glared at me. So he was not that much of an outsider after all. It seemed he had not wasted the years he had lived.

“And when exactly did you prepare this too?”

“Ha ha. I am a man who is prepared for anything at any time.”

I spoke lightly. I had made this together at the time the lay disciples were drafting the investment proposal. If I took investment from the lay disciples, then the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company naturally had to take the lead. I had prepared not just for investment, but for a business partnership.

“It feels as though I have been played right in the palm of your hand.”

“That was the sharpest thing you said all day.”

I answered with a grin, half joking. Cheong-ui looked at me and shook his head.

“I understand now why Cheong-hwa torments you. If someone does not keep tormenting you, you try to swallow the seniors whole. There is not one child among the Myeong-generation disciples who could joke with me like that. Even among the first-generation disciples.”

“It is the art of relationships. I have polished that art all the way to the realm of aesthetics.”

“If only you were incapable of speech.”

Cheong-ui pressed a hand to his temple, then flicked the other one dismissively. It was an order to leave.

“Very well. Since I understand, go out for now.”

“I will leave the contract behind.”

“…Do as you please.”

I set the contract down neatly in front of Cheong-ui and left the sect leader’s room. There really was nothing more thrilling than closing a difficult contract. Of course, it was not closed yet, but at least Cheong-ui seemed tempted.

That alone was enough. It was enough, but it was not perfect yet. For now, I had only persuaded one man, the sect leader.

I came out of the Three Purities Hall and turned back. The building standing in lofty solitude atop Heavenly Pillar Peak was elegant enough to be called exalted.

A shiver ran up my spine. I had just imagined the noble Wudang Sect being corrupted by money. Wetting my dry lips with my tongue, I smacked them in anticipation.

***

Cheong-ui had a headache. To be honest, when he had first accepted that boy as a registered lay disciple, he had never imagined the child would come to affect the Wudang Sect to this extent.

No matter how talented he was, the martial world was not soft enough for a child who had only begun learning martial arts at twenty to leave his mark.

And yet, Muk Hui-yeong grew at an astonishing rate, displaying talent even Cheong-ui had never dared witness. Up until then, Cheong-ui had merely been surprised.

But this child named Muk Hui-yeong possessed not only martial talent, but merchant talent as well. And with that merchant talent, Muk Hui-yeong was trying to change the Wudang Sect.

And he was doing it in such a way that it provoked as little resistance as possible. He was changing it by seeping in. The process of infiltration was so subtle that one could not stop it even while recognizing it. Before they knew it, Muk Hui-yeong had imprinted his own name upon the disciples of Wudang and had won their trust even without a Daoist title.

“Where did such a monster even come from?”

Cheong-ui tilted his head back and laid a cold cloth over his eyes.

“I told you, didn’t I? That he was no ordinary child.”

Beside him, Cheong-hwa grinned. Suddenly, Cheong-ui found his martial brother Cheong-hwa, who had taken Muk Hui-yeong as a disciple, impressive in a new light.

If one kept such a wildly gifted child who could fly off in any direction under oneself, would one not be on edge every day? And yet, Cheong-hwa seemed to have adjusted to it in his own way.

“He is beyond merely no ordinary child, is he not?”

“I did not expect him to go so far as to try changing Wudang. Wasn’t he originally a child who had little interest in Wudang to begin with?”

“That is true. Should I be pleased by that…”

“I am satisfied enough simply by the fact that Hui-yeong cares about Wudang.”

“Is that because you do not have to worry about such things, since you are not an elder?”

“Of course?”

Cheong-ui tilted his head back farther. At present, the elders only went up to second-generation disciples of the Cheong generation. Cheong-hwa, a third-generation disciple of the Cheong generation, was not an elder.

Seen this way, Cheong-hwa and Muk Hui-yeong resembled each other a little. Both had talent, yet both also had that free-spirited nature.

At that moment, the sound of a gong rang through the quiet Wudang Sect. Cheong-ui and Cheong-hwa reflexively looked outside.

This gong came from the main gate. The main gate was not a place where the gong was struck often. If it rang there, it meant a visitor had arrived and the gatekeepers did not know how to respond.

Without realizing it, Cheong-ui began gathering up his robes.

“Are you going out to see for yourself, Senior Brother Sect Leader?”

Cheong-hwa asked. Normally, it would not be something Cheong-ui had to handle in person. But Cheong-ui found himself drawn downward by a strange premonition.

Cheong-hwa followed Cheong-ui down from Heavenly Pillar Peak to the Wudang Sect’s main gate.

And there, Cheong-ui and Cheong-hwa beheld a sight they could not understand.

“I told you, we’ll sharpen the edge of your weapons. These whetstones are made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. They’re incredibly precious.”

“Isn’t this a scam?”

“What scam? We’re charging money for all of it.”

“What money?”

“Just hand over the sword.”

The martial men guarding the Wudang Sect’s main gate were in the middle of dealing with a group of people. Cheong-ui stared blankly for a moment, then abruptly turned his head.

Because there was only one culprit in all of Wudang who could have brought in people like that.

“Senior Brothers. To be honest, it’s hard to sharpen your blades properly inside the sect anyway. You can only do it now and then when you go out on jianghu travels.”

“That is true, but…”

And that person was now strolling down toward the gate with perfect composure, leading first-generation and second-generation disciples, including Myeong-yeop.

“…Muk Hui-yeong.”

Cheong-ui muttered the culprit’s name.